The Ontario Attorney General has withdrawn legal support for the Special Investigation Unit’s case against Ontario Provincial Police officers that may set a precedent ending the transfer of information between officers through shared legal counsel. The SIU has argued that by allowing officers to share a lawyer, they are able to compare their stories before being questioned by the SIU. The Attorney General stated that his decision to withdraw legal support stems from a conflict in representing both the SIU and police, even though it is the Solicitor General that oversees police.
The SIU is a shining beacon of independent oversight compared to other jurisdictions in Canada. Only Manitoba has made a move to adopt the model which disallows police from investigating themselves in in-custody deaths and other serious incidents.
Read the article in the Star.
Tags: OPP, SIU
Posted in The Police Blog | |
The RCMP has for years conducted surveys about its own work. Before 2007, 9 in 10 respondents had confidence in the RCMP’s work. That number has now fallen to roughly 7 in 10. To give you a better idea, this means that in three years, roughly 900,000 British Columbians changed their minds about the professionalism, honesty and integrity of the RCMP. Roughly 1.5 million British Columbians no longer have faith in their police force.
“If the public doesn’t trust the police, people won’t come forward as witnesses, they won’t participate in investigations, they won’t report crimes. Without trust, we cannot do our job.” - RCMP spokesperson Tim Shields
Read the article in the Vancouver Sun.
Tags: RCMP
Posted in The Police Blog | |
RCMP Commissioner William Elliott calls the pace of internal RCMP discipline “glacial”. No word on the speed of reform.
Tags: Police complaints, RCMP
Posted in The Police Blog | |
Just in case you needed a reason to start flipping off the cops, a man in Kansas has been awarded $4000 (and his ACLU counsel $1000) due to a ticket he received for hoisting his middle finger after a traffic stop.
Tags: Freedom of Expression, International
Posted in The Police Blog | |
On October 25th, 2008, Orion Hutchinson was killed when his motorcycle was struck by a driver who later blew over the legal limit. One would expect that driver to be immediately charged with impaired and dangerous driving causing death, but instead, it took the Delta Police over 7 months to recommend charges and another 6 months for the Criminal Justice Branch to make a decision.
On Tuesday, December 1st, the Criminal Justice Branch ignored the recommendations of the Delta Police and chose not to charge the driver, RCMP Corporal Benjamin “Monty” Robinson, with impaired and dangerous driving causing death. Without explanation, the CJB chose only to charge Cpl Robinson with obstruction. The public has been advised that the exceptional delay and lack of charges has nothing to do with the fact that the driver responsible for the death of Orion Hutchinson is a police officer. This is Cpl Robinson’s second pass, as he also avoided trial for his involvement in the death of Robert Dziekanski.
The case is yet another example of a police officer involved in a death not facing charges related to the death. It should be noted that never, in the history of B.C. has a police officer faced a criminal charge as a result of killing someone while on duty. It appears that the rule may hold true for killing someone while off duty as well. In far too many cases, including Dziekanski, Boyd, Bush, St. Arnaud and countless others the CJB has acted as judge and jury, deciding on which evidence would likely be preferred by a judge and invariably preferring the police version of events. If the CJB found Cpl Robinson guilty and pronounced judgment without trial, there would be an uproar. But refusing to try a police officer for manslaughter has not resulted in a commensurate public outcry.
BC’s motorcycle community is looking to change that. You can join them in a rally at 12:00 noon on December 8th at the Surrey Provincial Courthouse. Everyone is encouraged to attend and motorcyclist are encouraged to wear their jackets. Further details are below from a Facebook posting.
Also, check out the article in the Province and Gary Mason’s article in the Globe and Mail.
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Tags: RCMP
Posted in The Police Blog | |
RCMP Commissioner William Elliott will be seeking changes to the RCMP Act that will broaden disciplinary options and make it easier to dismiss officers for gross misconduct. Elliott argues that without legislative change, disciplinary options in serious offenses are overly lenient and often take years to resolve.
The BCCLA has witnessed how long it can take for investigations to take place. Most of the complaints the BCCLA makes are unresolved for years. One of the main problems reported to the BCCLA about the police complaint process is that if officers are found at fault, disciplinary measures are inadequate. If Commissioner Elliott can change the process so that discipline does occur when officers are found to have broken their code of conduct, this would be a huge improvement to the system.
Discipline aside, it’s important to note that in many of the most egregious cases, the RCMP has found no fault at all: Ian Bush, Kevin St. Arnaud, Clayton Willey, and Robert Dziekanski, and that in the history of British Columbia, not a single police officer has faced a criminal charge arising from a police-involved death. What good are better sanctions if you can’t see any problems in the first place?
Check out the story in the Vancouver Sun.
Tags: Creditable Conduct, Police complaints, RCMP
Posted in The Police Blog | |
When elements of a death in police custody are caught on video, the RCMP consistently exploits the victim’s family in order to suppress the video. Releasing the video to the public, according to the RCMP, would upset the family. Below are a few examples where the family has had to fight the RCMP to have the video released.
After Robert Dziekanski died in the custody of the Richmond RCMP, the RCMP seized Paul Pritchard’s video. Cpl. Dale Carr publicly attacked Paul Pritchard’s motives to release the video to the public on the grounds that it would upset Mr. Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski. Mr. Pritchard had to file a lawsuit to have his property returned. He released the video to the public with Ms. Cisowski’s permission.
A writer recently discovered the RCMP had video footage of Clayton Alvin Willey’s arrest in 2002. Mr. Willey died a few hours later. Despite a notarised release from the family, the RCMP refused to release footage citing privacy concerns. The RCMP backed down after the BCCLA and others demanded the family’s request to release the footage be honoured.
This week RCMP lawyer Ellen Roberts could not prevent the release of video footage of Robert Knipstrom’s arrest. Counsel for the coroner’s office argued for the release of the video on the grounds that the family was not opposed to its release. Once again, the only entity opposed to publication was the RCMP.
It is appaling that the RCMP resorts to such exploitation to avoid accountability. It is also appalling that the BCCLA needs to point this out to the RCMP. Yet, there is little that makes sense in a system where the agency responsible for the death of a person is also tasked to investigate its own culpability. The RCMP has recognised that they face a crisis of public confidence, yet one of the main arguments against the creation of an independent unit to investigate in-custody deaths is that only the police can investigate crimes. The RCMP ought to recognise that public confidence only comes when the RCMP show us they are doing a good job, not simply when they tell us they are doing a good job.
The public, like any good investigator, wants to view the evidence. Public servants should not need to be reminded who it is they serve.
Tags: Death In Custody, RCMP, Robert Dziekanski, Transparency
Posted in The Police Blog | |
A law like this is what the BCCLA has been working towards for years. Now’s the time to contact your member of parliament to support Ian’s law, a private member’s bill put forward by MP Nathan Cullen.
Tags: RCMP, Transparency
Posted in The Police Blog | |
Author: Johanna Schnackenburg
In 2007, Paul Boyd was shot and killed by a Vancouver Police officer. Officers responded to a 911 call concerning a man carrying a potentially dangerous weapon. Upon arrival, one officer shot Mr. Boyd eight times after he allegedly attacked two officers with a chain. The Criminal Justice Branch has just announced that it will not be advancing any criminal charges. In a report attached to the decision, the CJB advises that:
- only one officer fired on Mr. Boyd, no other police officers fired a shot;
- some attending police officers did not unholster their firearms;
- the shooting officer fired at least four shots after a direction had been given to the attending officers to “hold their fire”;
- Mr. Boyd was hit by at least four bullets and possibly five bullets after he was completely disarmed, including the final bullet that hit Mr. Boyd in the head when Mr. Boyd was crawling;
- the shooting officer said he believed Mr. Boyd was wearing body armour, and that Mr. Boyd was standing almost vertical and not crawling when he shot Mr. Boyd in the head;
- the shooting officer said he recalled shooting four bullets, but actually fired nine.
The investigation was not conducted by an independent investigative body but, as is customary in BC, by the VPD itself. It took two years of investigation to come to the decision that there is no need for a trial. This result is not surprising. A criminal charge arising from a police-involved death would have been the first in BC history. However is astonishing that the CJB argued that a criminal conviction was ‘not possible’ on the evidence even though the case of such complexity that it took two years to come to a decision. Instead of referring this serious set of allegations to the truth finding process of trial, the CJB acted as judge and jury by itself.
Unlike in BC, where a police force investigates itself after a death in custody, the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba have independent agencies called Special Investigation Units to investigate potentially criminal police action. The case of Mr. Boyd shows clearly the need for an independent investigative body in BC. It is not surprising that the public has little confidence in the police investigating themselves when police-involved homicides has never gone to trial in BC.
The BCCLA will continue to campaign for reform. The circumstances of Mr. Boyd’s tragic death should not be kept secret and any decision regarding criminal responsibility should be made in court, and in public, not in private by the CJB.
Tags: BCCLA Police Complaints, Death In Custody, Transparency, VPD
Posted in The Police Blog | |
For all the problems with police and government accountability in Canada, we look in good light today after Maher Arar’s civil lawsuit in the United States was dismissed over concern that the case would reveal state secrets. This effectively removes accountability for American police and spy agencies so long as state secrets are involved. Consequently, the rule of law, which holds that no one is above the law, suffers a substantive blow with this decision. Mr. Arar will now apply to have the case heard by the US Supreme Court.
The press release from the Center for Constitutional Rights, which acted as counsel for Mr. Arar, is below.
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Tags: International
Posted in The Police Blog | |
